House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2023-03-22 Daily Xml

Contents

Ambulance Ramping

Mrs HURN (Schubert) (14:31): My question is to the Premier. Does the Premier stand by his comments made on FIVEaa last year, and, if so, what month in 2018 was he referring to? With your leave, sir, and that of the house, I will explain.

Leave granted.

Mrs HURN: Last year, on 23 December, the Premier said, and I quote:

The commitment that I made and deserve to be held to account over was to get ramping back down to 2018 levels and the objective there is so that we can start having ambulances roll up on time.

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS (Croydon—Premier) (14:31): Given the member for Schubert's form about selective quoting, I am reluctant to provide a direct response to her—

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: Point of order.

The SPEAKER: Order! Premier, please be seated. There is a point of order from the member for Morialta, which I am bound to hear under 134. The member for Morialta.

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: A reflection on members, sir.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! That may be, except the member, of course, herself doesn't raise the point of order. I will listen carefully.

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS: What I would say is that we have been very clear throughout the course of countless interviews, whether it be recently from Minister Picton, or, just as importantly, the remarks that I made in the lead-up to the state election, including in radio interviews, press conferences, or the leaders' debate with the member for Schubert's former boss. In each and every instance, we made it perfectly clear that we want to fix the ramping crisis. We got asked, 'What does fixing the ramping crisis mean?' and we said it means reducing ramping so that we can see ambulances start rolling up on time. That remains our commitment. We were more specific than that again.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! Member for Morialta!

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS: Not only did we say we want to fix the ramping crisis, not only did we say how we are going to do that, not only did we say when we were going to do it by, not only did we describe the fact that we want ambulances rolling up on time but we put out a very specific metric, which is referring back to the 2017-18 levels—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Morialta is on a final warning. Member for Colton!

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS: —of ambulance response times. For those members opposite, if they would like to see where that was put on the public record time and time again, I am more than happy to furnish them with those examples.

The Hon. J.A.W. Gardner: Who has selective quoting?

The SPEAKER: Order!